A just-published THR report examines “director’s jail” and how, in an industry obsessed with the bottom line, it’s become far too easy for a filmmaker to land in it.
Stripped of nuance, THR’s definition of movie jail is that of a filmmaker whose last film lost the studio a lot of money and doesn’t get to do another studio feature for a while, if ever. However, because of current market conditions, the report implies that there is now, more than ever, increasingly little margin for error for directors.
Now, new talent must deliver multiple successful projects in a row, sans slip-ups, before being afforded the grace (albeit only so much) to fail at the studio level. Says a top manager with a stable of studio directors of the gauntlet for filmmakers, “You basically get one shot [at proving yourself], three times in a row.”
The piece actually has a few “disgruntled filmmakers,” all under anonymity, pointing their fingers at Robert Zemeckis, who, they say, keeps finding studios to greenlight his expensive projects, despite not having had a financial hit in over a decade.
Recent developments have hinted, even confirmed, that the likes of David Robert Mitchell, Damien Chazelle, Gore Verbinski, Joe Dante and, possibly, JJ Abrams have managed to get unshackled by greenlighting new projects.
This all leads me to wonder: which notable filmmakers are currently in “director’s jail”? THR doesn’t name names, which is noble of them, but I’ll do the dirty work and name 15 filmmakers who I believe to be currently locked up in some kind of cinematic hellhole prison:
Richard Kelly, Cary Joji Fukunaga, John McTiernan, Terry Gilliam, Nancy Meyers, Frank Darabont, Shane Carruth, Tony Kaye, Alex Proyas, Brad Bird, Tom Hooper, Josh Trank, Martin Brest, Tomas Alfredson, Tim Miller, Terry Zwigoff
Which director would you post bail for?
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.